WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – Kailee Cunningham set West Liberty's all-time career digs record and the Hilltopper volleyball team split a pair of exciting matches here Friday as the MEC/PSAC Crossover event began its two-day run at the ASRC.
    Coach Kayla Mull's hosts opened the tournament with an impressive 3-0 sweep of Slippery Rock (Pa.) but saw perennial Atlantic Region power Shippensburg (Pa.) come from behind in WLU's second match of the day to steal a 3-2 victory.
    Cunningham - who now leads all active NCAA Division II players with 2,165 career digs - shattered the West Liberty school digs with an exclamation point by posting a career-high 41 digs in the 5-set marathon against the Raiders (8-1).
    The second-highest single-match total in the NCAA Division II ranks this season, the 41 digs pushed Cunningham well past the previous school mark of 2,155 digs, set by Courtney Pyeritz from 2012-15.
    That wasn't the only milestone set on the day as fellow Black and Gold senior Mackenzie Sims picked up her 1,000th career dig during the Shippensburg match.
    The match itself was an instant classic with momentum swinging back and forth throughout. West Liberty was serving for the set at 24-23 in the first set only to see the Raiders battle back to pull out a 27-25 win. The Hilltoppers responded with 25-21 and 25-22 victories in the next two sets to take a 2-1 lead but Shippensburg answered with a 25-19 nod in the fourth set to square the match again.
    Neither team led by more than three points in the fifth and final set but but Shippensburg prevailed in the end, 15-13.
    Cunningham and Sims led the way for WLU with impressive double-doubles. Cunningham was credited with 10 assists to go along with her 41 digs while Sims had a match-high 16 kills in addition to her 26 digs.
    Freshman Alissa Dickson just missed a double-double with 14 kills and 8 digs while Morgan Farley also hit double-figures with 10 kills. Madison Clayton was a force at the net with 8 kills and a match-high 6 blocks. Renee Lemke had 24 assists and 17 digs while Kendall Souder added 23 assists and a dozen digs.
    West Liberty wasted little time taking care of business in the opener against Slippery Rock (4-5) as the hosts sandwiched a pair of 25-19 decisions around a 25-21 win for the sweep.
    Caitlin Clarke and Olivia Baumhoer led the way with 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Lemke had a match-high 25 assists while Souder was close behind with 23. Cunningham led the Black and Gold with 17 digs while Jo Lyn Jurek added a dozen.
    The West Liberty women take on two more Atlantic Region powers on Saturday. The Hilltoppers start the day off with a 10 a.m. match against Clarion (Pa.) before closing up shop with a 4 p.m. match against Mercyhurst (Pa.).